Additional info

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YSP has eight distinct outdoor 'gallery' spaces located in the 500 acre Bretton Estate. Designed in the 18th and 19th centuries, this varied landscape is a rich environment for some of the best modern and contemporary sculpture created by international artists. YSP presents changing special exhibitions and individual works by eminent artists all year round, so there are always at least 40 sculptures on display in the landscape.

Temporary indoor exhibitions take place in the Underground Gallery, Bothy Gallery, Garden Gallery and Longside Gallery.

Collection details

Fine Art

Key artists and exhibits

Henry Moore

Barbara Hepworth

Anthony Caro

Elisabeth Frink

Sol LeWitt

Antony Gormley

Sophie Ryder

Winter and Horbelt

Andy Goldsworthy

James Turrell

Exhibition details are listed below, you may need to scroll down to see them all.

Exhibition (temporary)

Henry Moore: Back to a Land

7 March — 6 September 2015 *on now

This major exhibition, in collaboration with The Henry Moore Foundation, takes a fresh approach to Moore’s work by considering his profound relationship with land, which was fundamental to his practice and fuelled his visual vocabulary.

A founding patron of YSP, Moore was committed to showing his work in the open air and in the rolling hills of the former Deer Park in particular.

The exhibition not only explores the artist’s radical notion of placing sculpture in the landscape – large scale sculptures greet the visitor on arrival at the Park and are displayed against the beautiful and historic vistas of the Bothy Garden – but the importance of earth in Moore’s creative thinking. Arch Rock, Ice Berg, Rocky Landscape and numerous other drawings, some rarely seen in public, along with a range of sculptures exploring scale and the interplay between internal and external spaces, emphasise the artist’s constant investigation of land, from the black coal seams of his hometown and the rich geology of Britain, to the mystical ancient forms of Stonehenge. The exhibition also presents an opportunity to explore the man behind the practice with a carefully selected display of personal artifacts, notes, sketches and photographs, curated in collaboration with the artist’s daughter, Mary Moore.

Suitable for

Any age

Admission

Free

Website

Laura de Santillana and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana

2 May — 6 September 2015 *on now

Venice-based siblings Laura de Santillana and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana are internationally renowned artists and descendants of the Venini glassware dynasty, established by Paolo Venini on the island of Murano in 1921. In May 2015, they bring their elegant sculptural forms and colourful glass paintings to YSP’s refurbished 18th century chapel in their first ever UK exhibition.

Experimentation, risk-taking and innovation drive the de Santillanas’ work, fed by widespread travel and collaborations with glassmaking experts across the world. Alessandro’s inspiration is water, which translates to the incredible treatment of the surface in his works, many of which have a strong, painterly quality. The YSP exhibition includes a series of wall and floor works by the artist with a complex, dark black yet mirrored patina, recalling the sense of looking into deep, reflecting pools.

Crushing the typical blown cylinder, folding it in on itself, is a technique often employed by Laura de Santillana to produce slab-like forms that are, in a sense, envelopes forever sealed by the making process. The artist refers to them as ‘glass books’, and they retain a powerful sense of seeming to contain knowledge held in suspension. In the chapel, the artist shows a library of these forms, to which she returns habitually, in specially made bookshelves.

Suitable for

Any age

Admission

Free

Exhibition (temporary)

Rob Ryan: Listen to the World

4 July — 1 November 2015 *on now

Rob Ryan, the highly acclaimed artist known for his intricate paper cuts, returns to YSP in 2015 with an exhibition inspired by Japanese culture, realising a long-held ambition to transfer his work onto fabric.

Taking inspiration from his trips to Japan, Ryan will create his own ‘noren’ (simple fabric signs), which, in Japan, are a vibrant and fresh part of daily life. Alongside this colourful, maze-like installation, Ryan presents his latest paper cuts and works on paper, all of which are available to buy. Ryan has collaborated with Paul Smith, Liberty of London, Tatty Devine and Vogue along with many other established brands.

Suitable for

Admission

Website

Caro in Yorkshire

18 July — 1 November 2015 *on now

This major exhibition, in partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle, celebrates and commemorates the extraordinary career of Sir Anthony Caro (1924–2013).

Caro’s relationship with Yorkshire was long and productive and included the highly important work with the Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, Halifax, in 1994–5. Here Caro explored the relationship between sculpture and architecture and produced the monumental Halifax Steps (1994), which began a major body of work culminating in Millbank Steps (2004) for Tate Britain. Caro was one of the first artists to support YSP and was a staunch advocate of the region’s artistic heritage and growing reputation as a world destination for sculpture.

Coinciding with Henry Moore: Back to a Land, this project is an opportunity for visitors to experience the work of Caro alongside that of his former tutor. Caro was assistant to Moore from 1951–3, a period he acknowledged as being of crucial importance to the development of his practice. The exhibition, in YSP Centre, Longside Gallery and the open air, includes figurative studies – some annotated by Moore, sculpture models, bronze portraits, galvanised steel and Perspex works, and a selection of Last Sculptures, created shortly before the artist’s death.

In 1991, Caro wrote, ‘Painters, sculptors and architects are at the root of the visual business together’, explicitly stating his interdisciplinary approach to sculpture which has been evident within his work since the 1960s. Distinct yet complementary exhibitions at The Hepworth Wakefield and YSP consider respectively Caro’s parallel concerns with architectural principles and painting.

Suitable for

Website

Bob and Roberta Smith

5 September 2015 — 3 January 2016

Visiting artist Bob and Roberta Smith, responds to YSP’s National Arts Education Archive in a new project celebrating the archive’s 30th anniversary.

Smith considers art to be an important element in democratic life, his work often taking the form of painted signs. Visitors can experience the open-air work, Art Makes Children Powerful (2012), which calls for activism and consciousness against the political establishment and is given new meaning at YSP.

First established at Bretton Hall College in 1985, the National Art Education Archive (NAEA) is a unique asset comprising key collections relating to developments in art education from the 19th century onwards. There are over 100 catalogued collections in the NAEA, the core collections reflecting Child Art and Basic Design, fundamentally opposing viewpoints of art education in the UK in the post-war years.

Suitable for

Any age

Admission

Free

Website

Bill Viola

1 — 31 October 2015

The immersive exhibition in YSP’s Chapel and Underground Gallery features work from across Viola’s career. Considering the universal themes of life, death, love and spirituality, Viola examines facets of the human condition, holding a starkly intimate mirror to our strength, our fragility, and the impulses and inevitabilities that unite us, giving tangible visual form to abstract psychological and metaphysical experiences.

The Underground Gallery is reconfigured to create a controlled experience where visitors pass from room to room to experience both intimate and dramatic works. Reflecting Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s audience, the works echo changing concerns across generations so that in this space people can find and share common experience. Inside the 18th century chapel, visitors see The Tristan Project – Fire Woman and Tristan's Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall) (2005), drawing on the ancient story of lovers gripped by a passion that is blind to duty, honour and social obligation and which can only be consummated beyond the grave. In these two works, water and fire come together in a purifying and transformative conflagration. Within the chapel grounds, Viola shows a film work outdoors for the first time. The artist has reconfigured his birthing film, Sanctuary (1989), an extraordinarily raw work, which accrues even greater depth and resonance in the context of the chapel and its fertile garden.

The walk from the chapel, across the Country Park, towards and through the linear Underground Gallery, emphasises the act of journeying and discovery. In addition, the physical nature of YSP enables us to draw out the importance of the natural world in Viola’s work. The exhibition is designed to be a sensory experience with space to pause and make time to reflect, so enabling an emotional or even transformational engagement.

Suitable for

Admission

Website

Jonny Hannah

In 2015, Jonny Hannah brings his vibrant and witty linocuts, screen prints, and works on wood to YSP for a major exhibition, inspired by the artist’s parents’ hometown of Kirkconnell.

Born in Dunfermline, Hannah studied illustration at Liverpool Art School and the Royal College of Art. Since graduation in 1998, Hannah has been working both as a commercial designer and illustrator for clients including The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times and English National Opera, and as a printmaker, creating wonderful screen printed books, posters and prints for his own Cakes & Ale Press.

Suitable for

Admission

Website

Events details are listed below. You may need to scroll down or click on headers to see them all. For events that don't have a specific date see the 'Resources' tab above.

Event

Ursula von Rydingsvard in Venice

9 May — 22 November 2015 *on now

YSP has identified a unique and exciting opportunity to take six sculptures from our major 2014 exhibition by Ursula von Rydingsvard to Venice to coincide with the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia.

The outdoor sculptures, in bronze, cedar and polyurethane resin, will be shown in the Giardino della Marinaressa, a public park with stunning views across the water to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

Garden designer, Luciano Giubbilei will re-landscape the Giardino di Marinaressa to accommodate the works in a second collaboration with von Rydingsvard – the Laurent-Perrier garden, designed by Giubbilei and featuring a sculpture by von Rydingsvard won the Best Show Garden award at the 2014 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

One of America’s most inventive and individual artists, with work in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, amongst others, von Rydingsvard has evolved a distinctive, highly personal sculptural language that has become synonymous with cedar, the wood that lies at the heart of her practice.

Suitable for

Website

Resources listed here may include websites, bookable tours and workshops, books, loan boxes and more. You may need to scroll down or click on headers to see them all.

Face to face resources

Artist-led group activities

Over many years YSP has organised and developed a range of artist-led activities aimed at providing an enhanced focus and stimulus for visiting pupils and students. Activities are available for groups of all ages and abilities and include; workshop/study days, guided tours, slide talks and lectures, and Inset/professional training days. All activities can provide a general introduction to sculpture or can be tailored to meet individual group interests.

How to obtain

All visits must be booked with YSP Education. For visits for artist-led activities please book well in advance to avoid disappointment. For further information on activities, costs, and availability please contact Education on 01924 830642.

Paper-based and downloads

Education Resource Packs

In addition to free information, YSP Education offers Resource packs to assist teachers and groups leaders in planning visits to YSP or for work in school. The Education Resource Pack (£10+VAT) includes supporting material exploring the outdoor collection, Access Sculpture Trail and other areas. The Curriculum Resource Pack (£5+VAT) provides support for QCA guidelines which can be used for long-distance learning and work in schools as well as for visits to YSP.

How to obtain

For free information or to order Education resource pack please contact Education on 01924 830642

Face to face resources

Heritage Tours

Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s new team of Heritage Volunteers will be leading free, guided heritage tours around the YSP landscape at weekends from February. Tours will take visitors from the YSP Visitor Centre, into the fascinating, historical landscape, and will explore the stories that have defined the area over the last one thousand years.

Website

E-mail

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Press/Marketing

Telephone

Visitor Centre

01924 832631

Learning & Community

01924 832528

Fax

Administration

01924 832600

Learning

01924 832601

All information is drawn from or provided by the venues themselves and every effort is made to ensure it is correct. Please remember to double check opening hours with the venue concerned before making a special visit.